Watch Details

Type: Professional diver’s watch, automatic

Production year: 2000 (limited to 1,000 units)

Retail price: JPY300,000

Status: Discontinued

Background

The SBDX005 was the last 600m automatic dive watch that Seiko produced. Limited to just 1,000 pieces it represents a tribute to the classic 6159-7010 shrouded diver that was made between 1975 and 1978. Some say that its sheer rarity puts its desirability well above above its predecessor, the 6159-7010.

Released in in the year 2000, this watch is part of Seiko’s Prospex line of professional diver’s watches and is marketed as the Historical Collection The Year 2000 with only 1,000 pieces to be shared amongst serious diver’s watch collectors worldwide. Before getting to know the SBDX005, it would be beneficial to understand its ancestry so that we can appreciate this phenomenal industrial grade diver’s watch.

The 25-jeweled, vintage 6159B caliber itself is a well respected Seiko movement – robust, long lived and offers an accurate 33,600bph high beat rate as well as hacking and hand-winding features. Its use was confined to professional Seiko dive watches in its time and was never used in any other Seiko model.

The 6159 lineage can be traced to the highly collectible, 6159-7001 Professional 300m (a very likely precursor to the present SBDX001 Marine Master) sold in the late 1960s and the movement was later chosen to power the shrouded 6159-7010.

Seiko designed the 6159-7010 Professional 600m as the most technologically advanced professional diver in its era, with over 20 patents to its credit. It used a revolutionary case with excellent resistance to helium gas penetration.

(All pictures in this post belong to their respective copyright owners)

The 6159B movement exposed (left) and the legendary 6159-7010 (right)

At extreme humanly possible depths, professional divers breathe helium gas that is mixed with oxygen since nitrogen is more toxic than helium at equivalent underwater pressure. Divers are required to undergo decompression in special decompression chambers to avoid the potentially fatal diver’s bends.

Since helium atoms are smaller than oxygen’s, they can easily penetrate the rubber seals of a watch that’s worn in a pressurized environment. Watch crystals are likely to crack during the decompression stage if the difference in internal and external pressures is high enough.

For this reason, many competing professional dive watches were equipped with special helium escape valves to relieve the watch’s internal pressure. The 6159-7010 was however, constructed in such a way that no escape valve was required.

With its patented seals and design, the 6159-7010 surpassed ISO testing standards such as:

pressure resistance

shock resistance (up to 10Gs)

extreme high and low temperature resistance

high degree of magnetic resistance (60 Gauss)

helium gas intrusion resistance

The SBDX005 Historical Collection carries on the 6159-7010’s legacy, with the same manufacturing and design standards but with an updated movement. The 6159 caliber was long gone and instead of retooling their dies, Seiko selected their excellent 8L35 caliber as the substitute movement.

The 26-jeweled 8L35 is not exclusive to the SBDX005 – in fact, it’s also used in the Seiko’s SBDX001 Marine Master and SBDX003 Historical Edition Professional 300m divers and also the SBDX007 Landmaster models.

Aside from the movement, the SBDX005 also has minor differences from its legendary 6159-7010 predecessor:

The use of Seiko’s proprietary, non-radioactive LumiBrite luminous compound instead of radioactive, tritium based paint

A lumed dot on the bezel’s triangle marker

Slightly differing font for the bezel markings

The original 6159-7010 (left) and the SBDX005 (right)

Dimensions

The SBDX005’s size is as follows:

Diameter: 51.5 mm (w/o crown), 54.2mm (w/crown)

Lug-to-lug: 51.5 mm

Thickness: 16.9 mm

Lug width: 22 mm

Weight: 134.5 grams with factory rubber strap

As you can imagine, the watch is one heck of a chunk on your wrist. 🙂

Look and Feel

Seiko certainly hit a home run with the SBDX005. The water-tight crown screws in securely and smoothly with just four twists of the crown. The unidirectional rotating bezel turns with a firm feel and the 120-graduation notches assure the wearer that the bezel clicks in place with no free play.

The 8L35 movement hand-winds smoothly with no trace of coarseness. With a tad over 50 hours’ worth of power reserve at full wind you can tuck this watch away for two full days before wearing it again.

The case is of a monocoque design, which means access to the 8L35 movement is through the front of the watch. The bezel has to be removed first, followed by the flat Hardlex crystal and the dial. Due to the complexity of the watch construction, disassembly of this watch is best performed by experienced watchmakers. Seiko recommends that the watch be sent to their Japan service center for any repairs or adjustments.

The shroud is protected by a layer of PVD (Physical Vapor Deposit) to help stave off scratches and scuffs. This watch was obviously designed to be used in rigorous conditions underwater although I doubt if any owners of this limited edition watch would subject their prized timepiece to rough use and abuse. 🙂

The lume is quite bright and has the same characteristics as the lume used in the Prospex SBBN007 “Tuna Can”. It glows well into the wee hours of the morning.

Some closeup photos of the SBDX005

Specifications

Caliber: 8L35A, 26 jewels

Caseback type: 8L35-0030

Movement: Automatic, hacking and hand-winding

Loss/gain: Less than 15 secs/day

Power reserve: About 50 hours

Calendar: Date only

Beat rate: 28,800 bph (8 beats/sec)

Loss/gain: Less than 40 sec/day

Crown: Screw-in type

Construction: Titanium & stainless steel, one-piece case

Crystal: Hardlex glass, flat profile

Bezel: Unidirectional, 120 graduations

W.R. rating: 600m, ISO certified for saturation diving

Luminous material: LumiBrite™

Movement Japan, cased in Japan

Presentation

Every SBDX005 comes in a deluxe 3-piece presentation box set, including the outer box and sleeves. The thick cardboard box is lined with a combination of leather and velvet, complete with silk-screened Seiko Historical reissue logos. The premium box and presentation befits the SBDX005’s special status as an extraordinary diver’s watch.

Conclusion

If I had the money and someone willing to part with one, I’d surely own the SBDX005. Due to its highly collectible status, expect to find a mint condition one for not less than USD1,700. Some may point out that for that asking price, the currently produced SBDX001 Marine Master with the same 8L35 movement would be the better purchase, but then again the SBDX005 is not your everyday watch!

As Seiko doesn’t allow any of their 8L35 caliber watches (such as the SBDX005) to be serviced only in Japan and not by their regional Seiko service centers overseas, you’ll have to send the watch to Seiko Japan for any rectifications. You’ll have to factor this into the total cost of ownership of the SBDX005 should you wish to own one for the long term.

For serious collectors only who appreciate high end dive watches and money to spare. 🙂

Credits

This review would not have been possible without the kind assistance of my good friend Jimmy Collins, a.k.a “Poseidon Jim”, who has kindly provided me with valuable information and his own impressions of his SBDX005. 🙂

Comments

Hello Quartzimodo,

To my surprise, I have had the good pleasure of reading your fine-review of the Seiko SBDX005.
I must say that you certainly did an outstanding job with compiling all of the information & photos. I learned some things that I hadn’t known of the early original 6159-7010/19 Shrouded divers.

Thanks for the nice feedback. I have to admit that I owe it to you for the SBDX005 review. I wish I could see the watch in real life (nobody around here has one) nevertheless I think it’s a souped up SBBN007 Tuna Can! 🙂

Good day my friend & a few observations:
I have now had my Seiko SBDX005 about 9 full months, and have had many other watches come & go with-in this time period, as well as looking back to approx. 1978 when I got my 1st Seiko sport Diver, and I have to say that this watch was well worth the money!
Not that my other watches fall short, as I have always been a True Seiko watch fan but rather, that this watch is the (Crown Jewel) of all Seiko Professional Dive watches.
I make this call in all respects that can be “Measured” not only within the Seiko family, but compared to many various other brands of Professional-Lines as well IMHO.
I Know this watch was well worth it’s Weight/Cost in “Pure Gold or Pound’s Sterling” for value!
If by chance you ever have the good-fortune to obtain one of these Rare Dive Watches, I highly recommend you doing so.
Cheers Quartzimodo, Your Good Friend from the USA-
Jimmy

Good to know that your SBDX005 is serving you well, my friend! It’s something that I would like to own someday but my financial situation not permitting at the moment. That is, if I could find a well kept one like yours! 🙂

Sooner or later you’ll have to service your 8L35 some day. Have you thought about having to send the watch to Seiko Japan for maintenance? AFAIK, Seiko Japan doesn’t permit any 8L35 based watch to be repaired or serviced by any of its overseas repair centers.

[…] In this case you’ll need to know the intimate history of the model – for example, the SBDX005 Historical Collection 600m diver was released in 2000 with 1,000 pieces made. You may not know the exact month the watch […]

Quartzimodo,
Very well done revision on this review of the SBDX005 and you added some very impressive facts.
Thanks for your awesome blog, it’s some of the best watch content out there!
Cheers mate,
Jim

Great review as always! For sure this is a watch to dream about (for me it will remain just a dream unfortunatelly). But, since I’m a little bit a Citizen watch lover, is it a Citizen review in the pipeline? 🙂

Sorry for the late reply as some old comments somehow were marked as spam. I’ll have to spend time troubleshooting my blog plug-ins to solve this problem. Thank you for your comments, there will be Citizen reviews in the future. I haven’t updated my blog due to some illness which gives me a bad case of the “writer’s block’. I might just get that interesting Citizen 40th Anniversary Eco Drive analog-digital diver as a present for myself. Its price has increased since 2007, the last time I looked at it.

I once had a replacement crystal, bezel, hands and dial for the 6159-7010 Professional 600m but sold them to a friend of mine (he asked me to buy them on his behalf). They were the last ones from the Seiko service center and not even Seiko Japan had leftover stocks of such parts. You’ll need to look for junked 6159-7010s and buy them for parts. Someone may have such watches lying around and decide to sell them off on eBay or the usual suspects (watch forum classifieds section).

You can also try Jules Borel, although this is going to be a thin stretch. Good luck with your quest!

Hi Quartzimodo, I have a SBDX005 which I acquired from a family member about 15 years ago. It has never been used diving and I had it serviced recently (1 year ago). I would like to see it go to a true collector so might put it on ebay or other collector forum. Any ideas? It has a scratch on the glass but functions perfectly and has genuine seiko rubber strap. I haven’t babied the watch but have not abused it either. It has normal wear signs.

I’m quite sure you’ll have many potential buyers for this rare piece. Just a couple of years back vintage 6159-7001s were sold on eBay for USD1,300 therefore I’d say anything around USD1K a good asking price for your SBDX005. The scratch on the crystal may reduce its value a bit. No worries about the strap as collectors can always order a replacement rubber strap or wear it on bracelet or leather strap.

If you decide to sell it off on eBay, auction it instead of selling it at a fixed price. If you’re thinking of aiming at a select group of collectors, SCTP would be a good place to advertise it (for free). Be sure to read the trade forum’s rules before posting your WTS (Want To Sell) ad.

I found my way back to your fine review of the Seiko SBDX005, and your article seems as complete a work as any other review I’ve had the good fortune to read.

Very well done, and the only thing I could add to this is that the Crystal in this Limited Edition was as you stated, being a flat beveled profile Hardlex crystal, but it does also have the blue tint “AR Coating” which is a rarity for OEM Professional Dive watch crystals, and helps to make this Historical Reissue the modern advanced Professional Tool diver that it was designed to be.

Thanks Zami & your blog is a wonderful Goldmine of technical information and facts, on all things Seiko!

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